The New England Patriots were playing at home against the New York Jets only 10 days ago, when the win they desperately wanted would have secured them control of the AFC East.

The Patriots are on the road today, playing the Miami Dolphins, and desperately need the win to simply keep them from falling into a rather difficult spot, preventing them from developing a sinking feeling about their postseason chances.

The Jets are 7-3 and leading the AFC East, the Patriots and Dolphins are 6-4. A loss today would drop the Patriots to 2-3 in the division, meaning they would probably lose out in most tiebreakers among those three teams. In other words, lose again to the Dolphins and the Patriots might be left to squabble amongst a half dozen or so teams for a couple of wild-card spots.

"Everybody's fighting for a spot in the wild card, in the playoffs," New England nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. "Being a division game and a rivalry game, I think that's the toughest thing. We're doing everything we can to get prepared for those guys.

"They're playing great football down there and we're going to have to bring our 'A' game to match them. Anything other than our 'A' game won't help us."

Miami, of course, is in much the same spot as the Patriots - things are good with a win, iffy with a loss. The Dolphins are playing a third straight game at home, nipping Seattle and Oakland in the first two to stretch their overall winning streak to four games.

Playing such a high-profile game with playoff implications is new territory for many of the current Dolphins. Sure, they routed the Patriots 38-13 back on Sept. 21, but this is November when games come with more pressure, Sundays have more meaning.

"For the last several years here, we've been looking up a bunch of these teams," Miami coach Tony Sparano said, "and we have an opportunity here late in November to be looking right in their eyes."

The question is how will Miami respond. This week is a little different than hanging on against slumping teams like Seattle and Oakland.

"I don't know (if this is like the playoffs)," Brown said, "I've never been to the playoffs. Obviously it's a big game, and we know that. At the end of the day, it's the next game for us and the next opportunity for us to make a statement in our division. That's how we're looking at it."

The Patriots did little right against the Dolphins in the first game.

Matt Cassel and the offense struggled to put points on the board, especially early when the Dolphins were jumping out to a cozy lead. Cassel has played much better of late, and he also has the lessons learned from that first loss.

His offensive line has been more consistent as well, perhaps in part because it can now count on the QB to do what is necessary to avoid some of the many sacks he took early in the season.

"You are able to go back and really review what occurred in the first game and make the corrections that you need to make," Cassel said of playing a team for a second time. "Also, you are little bit more familiar with their personnel and how they played you the first game, and we will see if that plays out in this next game. You just study the film, and now you have 10 or 11 games to go off versus when we played them in week three."

Cassel has also added the element of scrambling QB to the New England offense. Originally, he scrambled seemingly when he didn't know what else to do. Now, he seems to take off when other avenues have closed down and running is the best option.

"He does a real good job of knowing exactly what he's got to get," Miami defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni said, "and not only knowing what he's got to get, but exercising great judgment as to how he's going to get it. He's beating a lot of people now with his feet."

Despite the struggles of the offense in that last game, there is no question that the defense was the main culprit in the loss. Brown ran wild, especially when taking a direct snap out of the team's wildcat formation, and Chad Pennington had all the time he needed to throw. The Dolphins, by day's end, had surprisingly made the heart and soul on the New England defense - the line - look overmatched.